I have a friend who’s an eye doctor (a guy with a few years on me) we talk time to time talk about baseball.
He describes himself as an Orioles fan who feels that since Peter Angelos has “ruined the Orioles”, he won’t give him a money nor attend games at Camden Yards. I’ve tried to get him to attend a game with me – even with a free ticket.
His answer has always been a very polite, ‘no’.
His reasoning is that Angelos has ruined the product in Baltimore, there are no marquee names, and frankly the team has not been good for a long time. The guy wants to see someone like Paul Konerko at first, Adrian Beltre at third, a Cliff Lee on the mound, or even John Garland. Or Victor Martinez or and Adam Dunn at the DH spot.
However, he follows the games on MASN and pretty much reads all the papers, blogs and listens to sports talk radio to get the news. Plus, he really likes Buck Showalter (almost to the point of a ‘man crush’).
Whether he’s a real fan or not, I’ll let you all determine that.
I see the man once a month and the latest conversation – amongst other things – about the Orioles came down to Andy MacPhail.
We both chatted and wondered if MacPhail has even made enough progress with the Orioles during the past few seasons. He argues that the team needs more free agents and ‘drawing cards’ on the roster; meanwhile, I’d like to see a fix of the free agents and youngsters on the roster.
We both agree that MacPhail could do more. However, I do think the Orioles do need to focus on rebuilding the farm, because it as is, the more prospects a team has – the better.
Really, the organization is far better than it was perhaps a decade ago when we all saw another rebuilding project, I think at time was dubbed in promotions on the air as the “Baby Birds”.
We all know how that worked out. Even he thinks the Orioles are much better. Sadly, we both wonder despite it the improvement, will the Orioles ever contend with Red Sox and Yankees considering their financial advantage?
The Rays did it, although their team will be stripped of talent they had in 2010 and may be taking a step backwards.
The Blue Jays were able to finish above .500, although they were really not considered contenders.
At this point, we’ll all have to wait and see what happens.
Will my friend attend a game next season? Maybe. He stills insists that he won’t go to a game unless Angelos sells the team, or dies.
Finally, does anyone really, really think that Derek Jeter won’t be a part of the New York Yankees next year? There’s no point taking about a topic that has already been discussed to death, but there’s no way Jeter would ever, ever sign with the Baltimore Orioles.
I was not sure if Ron Fritz’s post on the Baltimore Sun’s ‘Toy Department’ blog was a joke or satirical piece, but I do think there was a bit of seriousness to it.
Yes, I do think signing Jeter would be a stroke of boldness for the Baltimore Orioles; however, I could never picture it.
